The last decade provided the plant science community with the complete genome sequence of Arabidopsis thaliana and rice, tools to investigate the function of potentially every plant gene, methods to dissect virtually any aspect of the plant life cycle, and a wealth of information on gene expression and protein function. Focusing on Arabidopsis as a model system has led to an integration of the plant sciences that triggered the development of new technologies and concepts benefiting plant research in general. These enormous changes led to an unprecedented increase in our understanding of the genetic basis and molecular mechanisms of developmental, physiological and biochemical processes, some of which will be discussed in this article.